Just like the Eagle head coach had hoped, the Eagles are making progress.
 
With Shantay Legans coaching his 300th game as an Eagle, the EWU men's basketball team took a pair of leads in the second half before falling 74-67 to the Bison of North Dakota State on Saturday (Dec. 8) in Fargo, N.D.
 
Eastern's Jacob Davison scored a career-high 25 points for the Eagles, and senior Jesse Hunt had his fourth double-double in five games with 11 points and 11 rebounds. Sophomore Luka Vulikic also had a solid all-around game with a career-high 10 assists to go along with seven points and three rebounds.
 
"Jacob is one of the better guards in the Big Sky," said Legans. "He's exceptional and can do a lot of things offensively because he's very skilled. He had a really bad wrist injury to start the season and injured his ankle, but he's starting to get back to full health. Now we have to get other players to step up with him."
 
North Dakota used a late 11-4 run to take the lead for good, and clinched the victory by making 6-of-6 free throws in the final 42 seconds. That spoiled a 52-percent shooting performance in the second half for the Eagles.
 
Eastern (1-6) was playing for the first time in a week, as both the Eagles and Bison (3-7) were looking for their first victories in three weeks. Eastern had seven more field goals in the game than NDSU, but was out-scored from the free throw line 24-5.
 
"We fought defensively and did a good job," said Legans, who is in his second season as head coach and 10th overall at EWU. "But you can't expect to win when you put a team on the line 27 times at their place and only get there yourself eight times."
 
Eastern has played without a pair of players – Mason Peatling and Steven Beo – the entire season thus far, plus sophomore Jacob Davison and senior Ty Gibson have also missed time.
 

Records . . .
 
* The Eagles are 1-6, and were coming off a pair of losses in Seattle, falling Nov. 27 at Washington 83-59 and Dec. 1 at Seattle by an 88-68 score. Eastern's lone victory this season came on Nov. 17 when the Eagles beat UMKC 87-80 in overtime.
 
* North Dakota State is 3-7 on the season, and hadn't won since beating Towson 76-51 on a neutral court on Nov. 18. The team's other victory was an 82-63 home win over UC Santa Barbara. The Bison, who most recently lost to Iowa State 81-59 on Dec. 3, had played just once at home thus far until Saturday's game.
 
 
What's Next . . .
 
* The NDSU game was the middle point of a stretch of five-straight games on the road for EWU –- Washington, Seattle, North Dakota State, San Francisco and Stanford. Last season, in just the third game under Legans of his head coaching career, Eastern upset Stanford 81-67 on Nov. 14, 2017. Having not played at home since Nov. 17, the Eagles will finally get to play at home when they host powerhouse South Dakota State on Dec. 18 at 6:05 p.m. at Reese Court. Three days later on Dec. 21, EWU closes its pre-Christmas schedule by hosting Corban University at 2:05 p.m. Corban replaced Walla Walla on EWU's schedule after the Wolves canceled their 2018-19 season on Oct. 24.
 

Top Performers . . .
 
* Sophomore Jacob Davison sank 11-of-19 shots from the field, including 3-of-6 from the 3-point arc, to finish with a career-high 25 points. He also had a pair of steals as he eclipsed his previous career high of 20 points versus Georgia State on Nov. 20, 2017.  Having missed EWU's first two games and lots of preseason practice time with an injury, Davison had averaged 6.8 points in four games entering the NDSU game.
* Senior Jesse Hunt sank 4-of-9 shots from the field and made 2-of-4 3-point shots to finish with 11 points. He also had 11 rebounds to finish with his fourth double-double of the season and sixth of his career.  He has now had 13 career double-figure scoring performances in his career and six with 10 or more rebounds.
* Sophomore Luka Vulikic had 10 assists to eclipse his previous career high of seven at Utah on Nov. 24, 2017. He also made 3-of-7 shots with a late 3-pointer to finish with seven points and three rebounds.\
* True freshman Austin Fadal came off the bench to score 14 points on 5-of-9 shooting from the field. That bettered his previous high of 12 points versus Green Bay on Nov. 16. Fadal also had a pair of steals and four rebounds.
 
 
Key Stats . . .

* Eastern led early by as many as three, but Eastern couldn't overcome 30 percent shooting (9-of-30) in the first half and trailed 31-25 at halftime. But Eastern sank 53 percent in the second half to finish at 42.2 percent in the game (27-of-64). However, Eastern was just 8-of-30 from the 3-point stripe in the game for 26.7 percent. There were eight lead changes in the game, with the largest lead by either team a nine-point Bison lead in the first half.
 
  
Notables . . .
 
* Legans was an Eastern assistant for eight years under a pair of head coaches before becoming EWU's 10th coach at the NCAA Division I level in 2018-19. He is now 146-154 in nine-plus seasons on the coaching staff, including a 21-21 record as a head coach. Last year, the 20 wins by Legans were the most by a first-year Eastern coach in EWU's NCAA Division I era.
 
 
* Seniors Cody Benzel and Ty Gibson have both played in more than 100 games for the Eagles, with current totals of 108 and 103 games of experience, respectively. Benzel has started 31 games in his career and Gibson has started 44. Both players are three-point threats with Benzel ranking eighth in school history with 157 3-pointers, while Gibson has made 126 3-pointers to rank just out of the top 11.
 
 * Members of the Big Sky Conference and Summit League have agreed to a four-year men's basketball series involving four teams from each league, which begins during the 2018-19 season. This week's game versus North Dakota State is part of that series, as well as EWU's next home game versus South Dakota State on Dec. 18. Each school will play one home game and road contest against separate schools from the other league during each of the four seasons. Big Sky schools participating are Eastern, Montana State, Montana and Idaho. The Summit is represented by North Dakota State, North Dakota, Omaha and South Dakota State. North Dakota's final year of membership in the Big Sky was in 2017-18 before moving to the Summit League, but the Eagles will play the Fighting Hawks again in the future as part the four-year rivalry series between the two leagues.
 
* Including NDSU, the Eagles have played just seven games total before this season versus their next five opponents, and five of those games came against one of those schools. Eastern has never played North Dakota State or South Dakota State, and beat Stanford 67-61 last season in EWU's only all-time meeting versus the Cardinal. However, EWU has played five games against San Francisco, sporting a 3-2 record versus the Dons. Eastern has also played once versus Corban, but that came back on Dec. 15, 1987, when the school was then known as Western Baptist. The Eagles narrowly won in overtime 75-67 at Reese Court.
 
* Eastern's 3-2 all-time record against San Francisco includes a 96-90 victory two seasons ago in Cheney, and an 81-71 loss a year ago in San Francisco. The three prior meetings were in San Francisco, and Eastern lost 66-48 on Dec. 1, 1995, won 81-76 on Dec. 11, 2014, and won 81-77 on Dec. 1, 2015.
 

Comments from Head Coach Shantay Legans . . .
 
On Shooting: "We got great looks, and all I can tell our team is that I believe in them. They are going to make these shots. We want great shots and we got them for our very good shooters. I'm going to keep believing in them. They are going to come back in the gym and will get some shots up. They just have to see the ball fall. We are running good plays to get or shooters shots."
 
On Other Individual Contributions: "Austin, for a true freshman, had a great game on the road. He made some big shots for us and did a lot of things defensively that really helped us out. We just have to get some other guys making shots. The name of the game is to make some shots and we have to get better at that. We shot 52 percent in the second half which is really good, but we also shot just 8-of-30 from three and that's not very good. We have to be better."
 
On Upcoming Schedule: "Our players worked really hard on finals and got all their papers and reports in before we took off for this trip. This was actually the first road trip they didn't have study hall. We're headed to California and that's going to be a lot of fun for us because we have a lot of players from that area. We play at San Francisco and they are a really good basketball team. They've lost one game to a top 25 team, and I believe they will be in the top 25. I think they are the second-best team in the WCC. They have size, they have good guards and they make a lot of plays. They are coached really well and you have to be prepared for them. They really move the ball and have some experienced players on that team. Then we have Stanford which is another really good basketball team. They just took Kansas to overtime and could have won that game. I know they remember us going there and beating them last year. They'll be prepared and ready for us. Then we come back home for two home games which is going to be great – I can't wait to play at home in front of our own fans. But we play against a really good South Dakota State team which is in the top five in the mid-major polls right now and should be getting some votes for the top 25. Two of the next three we play are getting votes in the top 25 and those will be a lot of fun. Maybe we'll get Mason back for the home games. We are just looking forward to getting all the way healthy and keep playing as hard as we can. I have to keep these players focused, that's my job. We have to keep them upbeat and happy, and be excited to go to practice Monday and get better."